Saturday, September 24, 2011

A final table that featured two satellite qualifiers, a WSOP bracelet holder, and a trio of Borgata regulars comes down to the J♠ as it's Bobby's World for the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship.

Bahbak 'Bobby' Oboodi (Morris Plains, NJ) is the last man standing in a record field of 1,313 entries as he takes down the $922,441 first place prize. "I'm just numb, the excitement hasn't hit me yet," said the 24 year old poker pro moments after winning the title.

"I feel like everyone else is more excited than I am, but I'm sure it's going to hit me later tonight when I realize I just won this tournament and nearly a million dollars."

Oboodi beat Jin Hwang (Gambrills, MD), a man who seriously doubted that he would make the final table and checked out of his hotel room on Day 4 before play resumed with 27 players.

"I'm so proud of myself, I think I did my best," said Hwang, who had no major cashes on his tournament resume, but pocketed $554,303 as runner-up. "I'm completely satisfied and happy with my play and ready to go on to the next tournament."

Heads up play began with each player holding at least 40 big blinds, but lasted only 18 hands. The J♠ was the key card that propelled Oboodi to victory on the final two hands.

On the penultimate hand, Oboodi hit a pair of jacks on the turn as his AJ bested Hwang's AQ to win a 10 million chip pot and extended his lead. The final blow comes when the one eyed jack hit the turn again giving Oboodi a flush and Hwang two pairs.

Oboodi had to sweat the river, but when Hwang missed his outs for a full house, the Borgata regular wins the championship with a queen high flush.

"My strategy for heads up was to small ball it. I didn't want to get into any big hands where I'm going to be put in marginal situations," he said while being congratulated from his rowdy rooting section, the Morris County Crew (MCC). "I was fortunate enough to make the flush against top pair on the last hand and it held up and here we are, champion."

Hwang, who didn't have any regrets on how he played the final two hands said, "I didn't think there was anyway he had a flush there," and that he expected Oboodi would have raised Hwang's flop bet with a flush draw. "He played it perfectly."

Hwang, the 56 year old self-employed financial agent, was happy to still be playing for a six figure cash as he was 27th out of 27 returning players on the final three tables with just 12 big blinds. But after surviving multiple all-in pots, he got a huge lift with quad jacks after his pocket hooks were dominated by the pocket queens of Will "The Thrill" Failla.

"That was the biggest turning point," said Hwang, who entered this tournament on a $400 satellite, "and that's when I thought I could do it. I was feeling comfortable and it was like someone was leading me to the final table."

When the final table of six resumed under the glare of the tv lights on Day 5, Hwang was once again the short stack with still only one dozen big blinds. But one by one, he moved up the pay scale.

The first to go was Ricky Hale (Cornwall, England), the other short stack, who turned a $100 satellite into $186,585 for his 6th place finish.

Darren Elias (Montclair, NJ), one of the three New Jersey players at the table, was 5th ($230,610) when his pocket jacks ran into Oboodi's pocket kings. The hand took Oboodi's stack to nearly 19 million and caused problems for Fred Goldberg (Hollywood, FL).

"I was sitting on Fred's left and he was put in a difficult spot being on my right because we were both chip leaders heading into the day," said Oboodi. "You really don't want to play too big of a hand out of position against the second chip leader. He was really unlucky with his seat because if he was on my left I'm sure I would have had just as difficult of a time."

Goldberg, a WSOP bracelet holder and the 10th place finisher in the 2006 Main Event, was frustrated throughout the day and finished 4th ($280,925) when he was out kicked by Oboodi on Goldberg's final hand.

Oboodi had more than half the chips in play while three-handed, as Hwang was second in chips and Daniel Buzgon (Marlton, NJ), the third local player, was third.

Hwang eventually knocked out Buzgon in third place ($335,433), setting up heads-up play, as the final two outlasted a world class field.

The tournament featured big names, bracelet holders and WPT champions. In addition to Failla (11th/$50,315), who was bidding to be the first back-to-back winner on tour and calls Borgata his "home" casino, notables who cashed in the $4,332,900 total buy-in included:

In the end, Borgata is Bobby's World and with his new found wealth his goals are to play more poker and to start a business. "Poker is great, but I want to have some steady income that's not related to poker," he said while trying to figure out where he'll display the championship trophy.

The WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship Event went on to break its own attendance record from the previous year. An astounding 1,313 players participated in the Championship event - including many of those who used the new Double Play option to take another shot on Day 1B after busting Day 1A.

Several PPI players made deep runs in the Championship, which featured a 1st place prize of more than $900k, including the WPT Legends of Poker Champion Will "The Thrill " Failla who pulled off an astounding 11th place finish to follow up his previous victory. Other PPI notable finishes in the Championship were: Jack Schanbacher (16th place), Ryan Eriquezzo (22nd place), and John Racener (35th place).

The PPI Leaderboard Champion was James Boyle for a 2nd year in a row. The staff and players of Poker Players International (www.ppipoker.com) would like to congratulate Borgata for a wonderful series of events, and we would also like to thank the Borgata for its continued support of PPI.

See everyone at the Borgata Fall Open (November 9-23)!Eric Siegel - Co-Founder PPI, Director of Marketing

While the Championship was going on in The Event Center, Event 24 was running in Borgata Poker Room. After 15 hours of play, Dan Dizenzo (Vernon, NJ) takes down the deep stack and takes home a whopping $20,875.

Dan outlasted 421 other players all vying for a piece of the $96,830 Total Buy-In. Keep in mind this was a re-entry so many players took advantage. Top 45 made the money.

After dinner, James Sansone (Las Vegas, NV) was the chip leader with over 300,000. Borgata regular Leanne Rosenblatt was among the chip leaders all day. She finished in 9th place for $1,633.

Your last woman standing was Josephine Finelli who finished in 6th place for $3,880.

The final table was fast and furious with what seemed like an all-in every hand.

Brian Kruyd (Parsippany, NJ) found himself stuck between two monster stacks 3-handed and finally fell in third place for $7,351.

Heads up took close to an hour as both players were very familiar with each other. Unbelievably, they had been playing since the tournament began.

Glenn Cole won four races in a row against Dan early on at the FT but lost the one monster hand when everything was on the line. Cole's QQ was cracked by Dan's 55 after he turned a set of fives.

Cole collected $12,047 for his 2nd place finish.

But once again the winner of the last main event of the 2011 Borgata Poker Open is Dan Dizenzo who made three final tables during this series and ends on the best note possible - 1st Place.

Congratulations on your $20,875 victory today you played outstanding poker and deserve it.

Dan Dizenzo (Vernon, NJ) takes down the last main event of the 2011 Borgata Poker Open. This is Dan's third final table of the open. Tonight he wins the Borgata trophy, the blue shark optics sunglasses, and $20,875.

The key hand for Dan's tournament was when 9th place finisher Leanne Rosenblatt flopped a king with A-K then Dan hit the case six on the river for a set of sixes and a huge double-up.

At the final table his 5-5 cracked Q-Q after turning a five and completely crippling his heads up challenger.

A couple hands later it was over.

After 9th in Event 2, and 8th in the $100,000 guarantee, Dan strikes gold and captures a first place title along with a huge payday of $20,875 to add to his Borgata bankroll.

Glenn Cole (Centreville, MD) started the day at the same table (T-4) as Dan Dizenzo. Seemed only fitting these two big stack grinders would end up going against each other heads up.

Both players were evenly stacked heads-up and played for 30 minutes without too much drama.

Finally a monster hand presented itself but Cole was on the losing end.

Glenn raised with pocket queens and Dan jammed with pocket fives. Glenn called and said he had a bad feeling after seeing the fives.

Sure enough a five on the turn proved disastrous for Glenn.

Board: 7-2-4-5-A.

After a count, Glenn realized he was still in the tournament but barely. He was left with two big blinds and was all in every hand.

The final hand that ended his day was his K-10 vs. Dan's K-J. Board ran clean and the J kicker played.

The construction worker build some great stacks all day but in the end couldn't survive his queens getting cracked. He would have played many more events but was summoned to jury duty all week. Today he was able to play poker and the verdict came in at $12,047.

Bahbak "Bobby" Oboodi (Morris Plains, NJ) has just won the 2011 Borgata Poker Open Championship and $922,441. The 24 year old is now a millionaire.

In two consecutive hands the tournament is over. In both hands a jack of spades on the turn spells victory for Bobby Oboodi and defeat for Jin Hwang.

After hitting a three-outter with A-J in the second to last hand of the tournament, Oboodi comes right back to finish Jin Hwang off.

Oboodi limped in with Q♠2♠ and Hwang raised 1,250,000 with K♣ J♥.

Both players check a flop of 6♣ 6♠ 7♠.

Jack of spade on the turn gives Oboodi the flush and at the same time gives Hwang two pair, jacks & sixes.

Jin Hwang perhaps steaming from the last hand, perhaps just wanting to gamble, jams all in. Oboodi quickly calls.

Jin is at risk, and behind in the hand, but still not dead. Only a jack or a six for a full house can save Jin from second place.

River 3♠ falls and Bobby's fan club goes crazy.

Immediately after winning, he was presented the WPT trophy. He hoisted the trophy with his friends behind him and the Royal Flush Girls beside him. Whoo-hoo!

At first, when interviewed by Mike Sexton, Bobby had no words. Then he said, "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. It's about time I won this!" His crew laughed. They also laughed at the following exchange:

Sexton - "Your name will be engraved on the WPT cup with all those legends."Bobby - "I'm probably better than all of them."

In this Championship, Bobby was better than all 1,313 players winning $922,441 and the 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open title."I'm just numb, the excitement hasn't hit me yet. I feel pretty calm right now, it's pretty crazy. I feel like everyone else is more excited than I am, but I'm sure it's going to hit later tonight when I realize I just won this tournament and nearly a million dollars."

Life changing money for Jin Hwang (Gambrills, MD) who just took 2nd Place in the 2011 Borgata Poker Open Championship. Originally from South Korea, Jin battled his way up the leader board after sitting in 27th place when 27 players remained.

2nd place for Hwang who was done in by the Jack of spades.In two consecutive hands a jack of spades on the turn was the card his opponent needed and the reason he lost back to back pots, along with the tournament.

"I'm so proud of myself, I think I did my best," said Hwang, "I'm completely satisfied and happy with my play and ready to go on to the next tournament."

Jin seemed more upset with the second to the last hand then the final hand.

He was steaming after his A-Q fell to Bobby Oboodi's A-J, perhaps regretting why he didn't bet more on the flop.

Hwang's run to the final table got a huge boost with 11 players remaining when he survived an all in with pocket jacks against the pocket queens of Will Failla. Hwang flopped a set and turned quads to double-up and cripple Failla in the process.

"That was the biggest turning point and that's when I thought I could do it," Hwang said about making the final table. "My only concern was getting a room. I had already checked out because I didn't think I'd still be here."

Great tournament and congratulations again to Jin Hwang who just fell short of first place but still takes home $554,303 for his second place finish.

Daniel Buzgon (Marlton, NJ) lost a race with his tournament life at risk and is out of the Championship in 3rd place. A huge payday for Buzgon who pockets $335,433.

Buzgon was slightly ahead holding 7♣7♦ up against Jin Hwang's A♥K♥.

Here's the action for Daniel's final hand.Bobby on the button opened for 800,000.Daniel in the small blind jammed his remaining 7,870,000.Jin quickly called and the television audience exploded into an uproar.

Bobby Oboodi thought for two seconds, pondering if he could felt two players and win the tournament right here. He decided to fold, letting the shorter stacks battle it out.

So we're off to the races with Daniel's 77 vs. Jin's AK.

Flop: 9♣ 10♥ Q♣.

Turn card J♣ gives Jin a straight.

River 7♥ gives Buzgon a meaningless set.

Jin advances to 18,000,000 just three million short of chip leader Bobby Oboodi.

Daniel Buzgon is finally gone. He said his good-bye's and exited the felt, soon to receive $335,433 for a job well done.

Sure to be an exciting heads-up between Bobby & Jin. Both players have many fans cheering them on from the rail. It's anybody's game. Who will be the next World Champion?

Start of DayChip Count: 11.1 million (2nd)Currently: 22 million (1st of 3)

Bobby Oboodi is of Persian decent and has a rooting section that includes 10th place finisher in this event Dan Colman and poker pro James St. Hillaire. If he wins the $922,441 first place prize he would like to start his own business.

James Sansone (Las Vegas, NV) has the chip lead in Event 24 deep stack with 393,500. Only one other player has cracked the 300,000 mark.

James was surprised when I told him he was the chip leader. A couple players at the table were giving him a hard time, telling him how to pose for the cameras etc. We'll see if the fame goes to his head or if he can maintain the lead until the end.

Out of the 421 players who started today at 11am, 75 remain. Everyone has their eye on cashing and if they survive to 45th place, they'll get a min-cash of $408.

Fred Goldberg won a WSOP bracelet in 2007, just one year after finishing 10th ($1.1 milllion) to Main Event winner Jamie Gold. Goldberg is married with two kids and took two years off from poker to spend more time with his family.

He returned to the game earlier this year and last week finished in 10th place in the $560 NL event of Borgata Poker Open, earning $2,711.

Darren Elias has been a poker pro for five years and was formerly an on-line player who won $400,000 for a 6th place finish in a WCOOP event. He is single after attending the University of Redlands where he studied creative writing.

Oboodi is still second in chips, but is less than one million behind Fred Goldberg as players are on a 10 minute tv break.

As the WPT crew make a few tweaks for the broadcast, we confirm that the chant is in fact"Bob the Blade," and his rail birds are known as the Morris County Crew (MCC). Joe Gossweiler admits he's the ringleader and the New Jersey group includes WSOP bracelet holder Allen Bari who is not in the audience.

Daniel Buzgon started playing poker in his dorm room at Arizona State University (Degree: Agriculture Business, Professional Golf Management). He's single and took advantage of the Day 1B re-entry after busting on Day 1A.

Jin Hwang has been playing poker for 25 years and qualified for the tournament in a $400 satellite. He's married and has one son. Hwang is the oldest player at the final table, 16 years older than Fred Goldberg, who's second in age.

A record setting field of 1,313 entries is down to six players as the tv final table is set to play for the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship first prize of $922,441.

"It's amazing," said Jin Hwang, who is the table short stack with 2.2 million chips, "I was on a roller coaster all day and to still be playing is incredible."

After four days of poker, two players emerged as the big stacks in Bobby Oboodi and WSOP bracelet holder Fred Goldberg, who both have a little more than 11 million chips.

"It's a great feeling anytime you have a chance to win a title," said Goldberg who is only 60k behind Oboodi's 11.14 million after being the chip leader most of the day. "I love Borgata. I've only played one other time, but seem to run pretty good here."

The other three players at the final table are Darren Elias (7.4 million), Daniel Buzgon (4.7 mil), and Ricky Hale (2.3 mill), who are 3rd, 4th, and 5th in chips respectfully.

Day 4 began with 27 players looking for their piece of the $4,332,900 total buy-in, including two WSOP bracelet holders and two prominent Borgata regulars.

On the local side, the largest rail bird crowd supported Will "The Thrill" Failla, who was trying to be the first player to win back-to-back WPT titles. Failla started the day as the chip leader, but after becoming a short stack was crippled by Hwang.

Failla was all-in with pocket queens, but when Hwang flopped a set of jacks and turned quads, Failla was crippled and knocked out the next hand in 11th place ($50,315).

"I was trying to do something that's never been done before," says Failla, "I got it in good, but the chips ended up where they were supposed to go."

Going out in 12th place ($50,315) was Matt Glantz who plays regularly in the high stakes room and has $3.9 million in career tournament earnings.

The final six are guaranteed $186,585 as they return 3 pm Friday to play for the title under the bright lights of the Event Center.

Event 23 is the second to last tournament of the 2011 Borgata Poker Open and was running simultaneously as the Championship whittled down to their Super-Six.

For $250 + $30 players loved the low risk and high reward. 255 players took their shot at a piece of the $63,750 Total Buy-In. 27 made the money but only one individual captured the grand first place prize of $17,312. That honor went to Atlantic City's native son, Cuong Phung who just kick started his poker bankroll to support his wife Thuy and 3-month old baby at home.

I named a couple players "All-In-Somniacs" as they played 17 hours yesterday, grabbed a couple hours of sleep, then started today's tourney at 12:00 noon and played all day again. The Vo & Sanjeev Datta both scored large last night in Event 22 and both played today in Event 23. Sanjeev ended in 12th today for an $804 cash.

Two players went out during hand-for-hand bubble action. The player with less chips, and crowned "the bubble" was Vince Nicoletti. He received some parting gifts from the players.

3rd place of $5,875 went to Craig Lampa while 2nd place in the amount of $10,202 went to Anthony Colombo. Colombo was out-chipped heads up 3 to 1 and his A high was rundown by Cuong's Q high.

Once again your big winner of all 3,825,000 chips and the $17,312 in cold cash was Atlantic City fall/winter poker pro Cuong Phung. Congrats on jump starting that Borgata bank-roll and taking down Event 23.

It's over folks! When the dust settled, Cuong Phung (Atlantic City, NJ) ended up as the sole survivor.

He wins the Blue Shark Optics sunglasses, the Borgata trophy, and $17,312 for his 1st place finish.

Cuong would have been gone if he didn't hit a miracle runner, runner for a chop early on at the final table of ten. Scott Raifer A-5 vs. Cuong Phung's A-8. Board ran out: A-4-5-10-10.

From that point forward he built his stack and became the chip leader. He jumped up to 1,375,000 after his A-7 saw an ace in the window on a draw heavy board. He never let go of the lead once he captured it.

Cuong was playing this tournament for his wife Thuy and his three-month old baby waiting at home for him. She's reading the blog at home and following this tournament. Cuong said "Hi" to her earlier but we weren't able to get the post up.

The local New Jersey boy works full-time in the summer months but in the fall/winter he plays poker for a living. Today's win came at the right time as Cuong is building a bankroll.

He was very happy and excited after felting Craig Lampa. Calling with Q-6 proved right as his cards were live and he out-flopped Lampa hitting a Queen.

It's his third cash in the 2011 Borgata Poker Open but tonight's $17,312 is by far the largest of the three.